Twists of Fate

Yesterday I spent a goodly amount of time taking breaks between spinning for Spin for Peace by washing up the box of yarn I had Spinderella’s do up for me from some of my 2007 Skylines Farm Romney purchases. I had forgotten about two of the three fleeces, but found the box last week when attempting to organize a wee bit.

Eight pounds of fingering weight yarn later, I am pondering Icelandic shawls. And I think I found the perfect pattern to use for my first try in Evelyn Clark’s new pattern. Until I spin up my own Icelandic, I’d like to use the three colors I have on hand in one of these, as well as one perhaps from Foroysk Bindingarmynstur. I have a natural white, a medium gray (with a bit of brown), and a dark gray.

Something to look forward to, perhaps, once the Games are over.

Of course that didn’t stop me from buying two sweater’s worth of yarn from WEBS for use this fall. :D

I’ve enjoyed reading her blog, but the article in the Washington Post really brought a smile to my face.

You go girl.

Spun up about three more ounces of the fabulous roving from Stonehaven Farm down in Oregon. I forgot to take a picture of the box of fabulous that came…I think Lois may have included an extra color? It’s all kind of lost in a haze of grabbyhands!fever, but I could swear that there are six colors in the box instead of the five I thought I was getting. There’s a little VM, but I think that’s inevitable due to the nature of Shetland sheep. I swear most of the times I’ve seen Shetlands in person they’re good naturedly dribbling bits of hay all over their fellow flock members at the feeder.

Wow, alliterative sentence after midnight. Cool.

Where was I? OH! Yes, the roving is fabulous. It still has that sheepy smell that so many of us spinners are addicted to, and it’s super easy spinning. My spinning is not so even, but it was consistent enough that I was pretty happy about it.

Speaking of happymaking, check out one of the candles I managed to unmold without damage. I wish I could say I made the mold, because then people would go “oooo!”, but I got it off eBay. Sorry for the fairly poor picture - I took it with the Crackberry camera. The next time I pour I’ll take a better picture. The candle should be a bit better too, now that the mold is no longer a maiden.

I did a batch mostly for personal use on Lammas/solar eclipse day. I’m keeping one of the two of these for myself. The other I am giving to a friend I’m seeing tomorrow. Solar eclipses block the “now” and tend to bring shadow work we may need to do to the surface until the lunar eclipse that follows roughly two weeks later. I know my friend has been struggling with some healing past wounds, some of which are still very, very fresh. I hope that the energies and intent that were used to craft the candle will help make processing those shadows more gentle and easier, so she can move forward back into the light.

Time for sleepytime now, I think.

Kitt: “Do you have a goal?”
Other hooker: “I always wanted to be in the Ice Capades.”

Bowerbird knits has a great post with all kinds of good info today. The contest really makes me think, though. I kind of went on in the comments, but I’ll just C&P here, as it really encapsulates what I want.

I want to make things and have people buy them. I’m thinking mostly batts that I’ll blend by hand, and hopefully some dyed yarns. I have nearly all the pieces assembled, and now I just need to finish organizing the studio, make up my bases and…go. I’m terrified, frankly, but look forward to it.

Most of all? I want to find some balance. This past couple of years has been crazy with work taking over everything. So much so that I’ve spent the majority of the past two months recovering from that consulting gig. I don’t ever want to be drained to that point ever again. I want to treat myself better, to be healthier, to learn to say no to the things that are incredibly unreasonable but also the things that aren’t really in scope for what I do. I need to work to live, not live to work. This is my main goal for the foreseeable future.

So there you go. I’m hoping to have my first blends up in September. I carry a couple of notebooks around with me all the time, jotting down thoughts and color ideas. I have no training, no knowledge beyond what I know in books and have read on the web, but I’m going to do this anyway.

So close, and yet so far. Pesto wins, but I wasn’t the first to suggest it. Fucktity. :(

I think I finally figured out a way that’s comfortable for me to hold a couple of different yarns at the same time. I’m a thrower, though I’d love to be a picker because I am slow slow slow at knitting. But holding one yarn between my middle and index finger on my right hand and the other around my index finger seems to work OK.

This is good news not just for the Kauni hat I’m knitting tonight, but it’s also good news for the Bohus class next month.

So, you know. Yays. Also, bored now. I found most of the pieces I needed for a project during an adventure to ManLand today, but it means my knee is killing me. I did find a shop vac on sale, though, with a wand and extensions (though not of the Posh Spice kind). I learned how to use a hacksaw, but gave up trying to cut the stuff after three separate men decided to comment on how I was doing it. I made an attractive young man in an orange apron finish the rest, because I just wanted out of there before I got a terminal case of testosterone poisoning.

Also, those NuvaRing commercials are annoying. All the women have perfect figures. Assholes.

Hmm. Combine the irritation with a healthy craving for chocolate and what do you get? Oh yeah. :P

Anyone else out there an Avenue Q fan? If so you’ll recognize the title. And maybe, if I am evil enough, you’ll be singing it all day too. :D

I’ve lost all my words about the workshop with Carol Rhodes, but suffice it to say that she is FULL of awesome and fabulous and a wonderful teacher. I learned quite a lot about fleece selection for spinning the Arans (not likely, because I hate me some bobbles yo), Guernseys (somewhat more likely if I really decide I love my brother, the merchant marine) and Fair Isle (possible, but not anytime soon) yarns and patterns.

For Aran yarns, we spun two different fleeces. I tripped and fell and bought some Cheviot, which I learned is pronounced Chee-vee-ott, and it’s sitting and waiting for me to wash it. The Galway (I think? I can’t find my little booklet from the class…I think it’s in the studio with the wheel) fleece is hard to find outside of Ireland. I can see where I may want to do an Aran hat or maybe some mittens with a wristband that has some cables, but dude. The bobbles. I hate the bobbles. I have a bobble loathing that is probably fairly unreasonable, but seriously, why wear something that looks like you’re wearing cat testicles proudly on your clothing?

With the Guernseys, I learned that I really love pure Blue Faced Leicester in combed top format, but am no so much with the enjoying of the personally combing or carding it. Those spiral, crimpy locks are lovely to look at and a bitch to work with. I want to roll around with it in soft focus and maybe a suggestive soundtrack (the FLEECE people, this ain’t a Dolores production), as long as it’s clean, but if you want me to spin it? Pure BFL in combed top please. I did find that the Scotch Mule crossbred fleece was MUCH easier to work with, as the teeny tiny curls were magnified so it was easier to work with, and I think my best yarn of the entire weekend was spun with the two locks of that Carol was able to share. I am tracking some of that down for next year (they already sold the whole ‘08 clip foo…and yes, I googled it) and getting me some.

Last but not least were the Shetlands, who are small, cute, and too smart for their own good. Sadly, by this point in the weekend I was spinning wounded and totally on overload. I did get that there is a remarkable amount of variety in the breed, that I could spend just about forever working with just the natural colored palette that the beasties come in, and that a true moorit is a beautiful thing to see. Also, when I’m tired I can’t spin nearly fine enough to make a Fair Isle weight yarn.

I would be QUITE remiss if I didn’t mention that Suzanne, part of the brains behind Madrona Fiber Arts, is a damn fine cook. Plus, the house was gorgeous, and Rakish Joe and the super sweet Diva were quite welcome distractions for someone who has no animals of her own. Besides the dustbunnies that roam the land that is my apartment, I mean. Suzanne was a gracious host for the hordes, and mmmmmm good eats. I didn’t even mind driving from where I love out to the house, which seemed like a really long drive in the 7am hour for three days in a row.

Anyway. Good Eats (sans Alton). Fab teacher with a Table of Happy (many knitted samples). Great classmates who put up with my severe crankiness when trying to ply from three wound balls (never again). All in all, well worth the money and I am very much looking forward to the Bohus class next month!

And now, to the porn. While buying up some of the types of fleeces we worked with in class (though I did go with roving for some of it), some of my other purchases arrived. For some reason, I keep getting Coopworth and Corriedale mixed up in my head. I really didn’t enjoy working with the Coopworth roving I purchased when I first began spinning. Maybe it was a strange batch, but it reeked of a weird glue-like smell and was really really rough. I’ve shunned Corriedale because I thought it was similar, but then pulled my head out and got to reading, and from what I understand it’s really quite a lot softer, finer, and if these fleeces from Twin Peaks Sheep and Wool Company in Colorado are some of the best of the breed? I’m a happy happy camper indeed.

Holly, right out of the bag she shipped in.

And some of the fiber washed up today. I always let my fleeces soak overnight in water with half a squirt of Dawn. Then I drain, wash twice (these only needed once) with three squirts of Dawn and then two rinses. I got a new toy that spins out so much more water than the salad spinners did and it’s worth every single penny I paid for it.

I’m rather pleased with how well the “locks” stayed together here, even if they all fluffed up into a mass that makes it difficult to really distinguish individual locks. The crimp is super obvious in the fleece, but the individual locks really kind of blend together into these big blocks that stayed together well in the wash.

Not the best pictures of the washed fleeces, but I used the Crackberry camera, and lightened them a bit when I uploaded them. I need to work on a lighting plan for the studio. The carpet is a dark teal and it faces mostly north.

OH! Before I forget, I must thank my favorite NOR-ma for the lovely pink sock kit I won from her blog contest! We share a birthday, and she was giving this away on the day. And then Sandy pulled my comment number out of the morass and lo, I won! On my birthday! For a giveaway she did for her birthday! The cosmic coming-togetherness boggles my little peabrain. But it’s happymaking, and it came with a card that I believe is a January One special (I could be wrong and please do correct me Norma if you read this and I am wrong) and it was very warm fuzzy inducing when I opened the package today.

Whew. A long post, but there was lots to talk about for once!

Still can’t get into what will be my crafting space, as the eviction proceedings to get Psycho!Renter out are not yet complete. This is driving me batty, as equipment and supplies are arriving, and I have no where to put it. Soon, I’ll be typing these blog entries perched on top of a cardboard box, because it’ll be the only place left that’s relatively flat and unoccupied.

Still feeling glum and a bit down. This time, though, I blame hormones which meas that later this week things should be looking up. I hope. I’m not sure, but I hope. I notice that when I’m down and kinda foggy, I forget to eat, which kind of sucks. Must remember to do that. It’s a bit easier now that I’ve had a chance to go to the farmers markets for fresh produce. Fresh Rainier cherries will get me to eat when I totally don’t feel like it. In fact, I should go and get some now, and let them warm a smidge before going to town.

In knitting news? I’m working very desultorily on a sock, and pondering starting a hat/mitts set from one of Anne’s patterns and yarn from A Piece of Vermont Real Vermonter Bristol. I got a lovely blueish green and the natural, which I think would look groovy together. I haven’t actually opened the package though, so I’m not sure.

Man oh man I cannot wait to organize my living space. I find it really hard to knit or spin or even read in here when it’s this crowded. Time to ping the landlady again about the whole shebang.

I hope you all are enjoying the weather wherever you are!